Once the thought occurs, even the most casual observer has to be impressed by the enormous waste of unused toilet tissue at high density locations such as hotels and stadiums. Such waste is certainly a cost factor in the operation of such locations, as evidenced by some of the gadgets and other devices being used that are designed to limit or restrict a user's access to toilet tissue.
One enormous source of waste is the replacement of partially used rolls of toilet tissue with new rolls followed by the disposition of the partially used rolls that are discarded along with the trash and other garbage. It is frequently the policy of an institution to replace a roll of toilet tissue that is partially used with a full roll, even if only a few sheets have been removed. Thus, it is evident that a considerable amount of perfectly good unused toilet tissue is being discarded each and each day.
In addition to the obvious financial waste in disposing of a perfectly good and useable product, are issues and concerns are involved. In many cases the unused rolls of toilet tissue end up in land-fills that are already space limited. In addition, like many paper products, toilet tissue is generally a product of the forest. To the extent the product is not fully used, it requires the use of more trees in the forest to replace it.
A number of prior art devices have been developed to conserve toilet tissue. These include many devices designed as dispensers that limit the amount of toilet tissue that can be removed at one time. Another conservation technique the use a dispensers that take oversized rolls, thus permitting more of the roll to be used before the tail end of the roll is ready to be discarded. All of these devices seem to work to a moderate degree, but using such devices is not appropriate for all occasions. Although no one minds a service station or convenience store installing one of the typical conservation devices, everyone objects if a hotel or motel attempts to use such a device.
It would be interesting to determine, assuming appropriate data was available, how much land fill could be saved, how many trees could be conserved and how much capital would be made available for other purposes, if the waste from the disposition of so much unused toilet tissue could be eliminated or, at least, reduced.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system for recovering and recycling unused toilet tissue from partially used toilet tissue rolls.